Work Text:
A mirror's reflection is always identical,
I'd never admit it to you,
Or anyone else,
But when we were kids,
I used to imitate your actions.
The way you looked over when something caught your attention,
How instant the snap seemed,
No matter how insignificant the object of your attraction.
The way your eyes widened just a bit,
But the rest of your face stayed the same.
How you'd reach for things up high,
When you'd stand on one foot,
And the way your shoulders would tense,
While you stared with such determination.
The way you held your pencil,
And the way mother would scold you for having your pointer finger too high,
And how you clearly never listened when she did.
You'd always tell me after, how it felt better to have your finger higher.
I never listened to her either,
Even though I preferred to have my finger lower.
I watched your movements,
I studied them,
I imitated them.
We were one person,
Split into two bodies.
I wanted everyone else to see that, too.
"Creepy", they called it.
Or "eerie", the sophisticated.
You never commented.
I never did either.
Not to their faces, at least.
I realized a bit too late,
The baby brother I'd been imitating,
Wasn't a baby anymore.
And his movements had long been rewritten.
You had changed so much,
And I hadn't even noticed.
You seemed impossible to understand now.
I stopped perceiving you as a mechanism,
Something simple and recreatable.
I started seeing you as a work of art,
Something abstract,
Impossible to grasp.
But I didn't have to grasp anymore.
I could simply admire.
But it was clear now,
I had to forge my own path.
Craft my own movements.
And when I studied myself for the first time,
In that mirror, as you spoke,
I realized I already had.
We're not perfect copies of each other anymore.
Once, we were indistinguishable.
If our parents were upset for something you did,
I could take the fall,
And they wouldn't even be able to tell.
Now people can recognize us from a distance.
And that's okay.
If one person were to be split into two,
One half would get some traits,
And the other, the remaining.
I'm not a perfect imitation of you anymore,
Because I possess the traits you didn't inherit,
From the person we are together.
I do what you can't,
You do what I can't.
You are my beating heart,
And I am the blood that runs through your veins.
But always reversed.